


where you keep your heart

by seeingrightly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 05:29:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15988619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seeingrightly/pseuds/seeingrightly
Summary: Stiles keeps accidentally almost driving home after work.Not home. The house he lived in with his dad, and with his mom much longer ago. The house they recently sold, so his dad could move in with Melissa, so they could get a fresh start together, away from the dark memories both of their houses held.And Stiles has a new place to think of as home now, and it’s not that he doesn’t want to live there or think of it that way - he does! - it’s just, you know, an adjustment. Stiles isn’t good at changing routines, or changing the way he thinks about things when he’s not paying attention, and he’s usually not paying attention. It’s gonna be a real conscious effort to get used to thinking of Derek’s apartment as home. As his apartment too.





	where you keep your heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theverytiredgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theverytiredgirl/gifts).



> this is canon divergence in that i wrote it as though nothing after s2 happens and it takes place a bunch of years after that point! this is just something quick and nice and domestic for melissa's birthday
> 
> title from "your apartment" by jenny owen youngs

 

 

 

Stiles keeps accidentally almost driving home after work.

Not home. The house he lived in with his dad, and with his mom much longer ago. The house they recently sold, so his dad could move in with Melissa, so they could get a fresh start together, away from the dark memories both of their houses held.

And Stiles has a new place to think of as home now, and it’s not that he doesn’t want to live there or think of it that way - he does! - it’s just, you know, an adjustment. Stiles isn’t good at changing routines, or changing the way he thinks about things when he’s not paying attention, and he’s usually not paying attention. It’s gonna be a real conscious effort to get used to thinking of Derek’s apartment as home. As his apartment too.

They’d talked about moving into a new place as well, rather than Stiles just moving in, to avoid this problem. But it’s a really nice place with a lot of extra room for the pack, a second bedroom anyone can temporarily stay in when there’s relationship drama or an injury or whatever, and odds of them finding a nicer place in downtown Beacon Hills aren’t that high. And Stiles has always liked the apartment anyway, and when he thought about moving in with Derek it’s what he pictured, so he’d wanted to stay there. He’ll adjust to actually doing it soon. Probably.

One perk that Stiles is definitely already used to is that Derek’s second parking space is always free now, because it’s  _ his  _ now. He gets out of his car and heads inside and decides to take the stairs. Having a temporary office job, now that he’s finished up his master’s degree, is weird; he’s not used to having to sit so still and quiet for so long and he suspects his cubicle neighbors think he’s strange and not funny. At the end of the day he’s always a mixture of tired and restless that leaves him frustrated and unsure of how to alleviate it.

When he unlocks the door and heads inside, just a tiny bit short of breath from the stairs, no really, he can hear Derek in the kitchen. Stiles heads there first after he closes the door, and Derek looks up just as Stiles comes to the doorway. Derek’s at the kitchen table, surrounded by a small mountain of textbooks and notebooks and his laptop. He looks tired.

Derek’s finishing up the undergrad degree he’s been sporadically working on for many, many years, but he won’t quit his construction job while he does it, even though he doesn’t  _ really _ need the money. It’s good for him to be busy, to feel like he’s accomplishing something, but sometimes Stiles wishes he wouldn’t alternate between doing too little or doing too much at once, even though he knows that’s hypocritical of him.

“Hey,” Derek says, and maybe Stiles imagines it, but he seems to brighten up a little, to gain some energy back, now that he’s looking at Stiles.

“Hey,” Stiles replies, walking over to the table.

He leans down to kiss Derek, resting one hand on top of a textbook and dropping his messenger bag on the floor by his feet. Derek reaches up and grabs the back of Stiles’s thigh as he leans into the kiss, and it makes Stiles shiver just enough that Derek feels it and breathes a laugh against his mouth.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Stiles says, more out of routine than any real petulance, and Derek squeezes his thigh and kisses him again.

“You’re always telling me how funny you are,” Derek says as he pulls away, in that voice he uses when he thinks  _ he’s _ being funny.

Stiles scoffs as he stands back up, going over to look in the fridge. Derek lets out at annoyed noise and kicks a little at his bag, so once Stiles grabs a drink, he comes back and slings it over his shoulder once more.

“The day you laugh at something I’ve done on purpose,” Stiles grumbles, shaking his head.

“You’ll what?” Derek asks, so Stiles flips him off.

He heads to the bedroom to put away his bag and get changed into comfy clothes. He’d felt weird, at first, about wearing his holey pajamas and old t-shirts in front of Derek. Of course they’d seen in other in plenty of gross, unexpected conditions before, but it was different to do it on purpose and all the time. So far Derek hasn’t made any comments about his ugly pajamas, or about the couple of times he’s woken up in the middle of a panic attack during the night, or the way he never remembers to actually put things in the hamper until it’s actually time to do laundry, now that he’s experiencing those things consistently.

Derek just seems happy that Stiles is living with him. Maybe the charm will wear off, maybe the annoyances will build up, but Stiles has been afraid of that for their entire relationship so far and it hasn’t happened yet.

Once Stiles is changed, he heads back into the kitchen. Derek’s probably already prepped something for dinner, and Stiles can get started on making it while Derek does his homework nearby where he can offer reminders when Stiles gets distracted. They have a good system.

“Hey,” Derek says before Stiles can go over to the fridge, and this time his tone is weird.

It’s always clear when Derek is experiencing some kind of negative emotion, but he spent so long translating every emotion into anger and shielding himself that it’s usually hard to tell  _ what’s _ wrong when something is wrong.

“What’s up?” Stiles asks.

He walks over to Derek, puts a hand on either side of his neck, but Derek scoots his chair back and Stiles takes the hint to straddle his lap, Derek holding his thighs to keep him steady. Stiles brushes the hair at the nape of Derek’s neck with his fingertips.

“Erica and Isaac are fighting about something stupid, and Boyd told them that one of them has to stay somewhere else for a night or two,” Derek says, his eyebrows drawn together at the middle.

Stiles presses his thumb to the ridge between them, smoothing it out. He’s not sure why Derek would be angry about something that happens all the time, so he’s got to prod for more til he can figure out what Derek’s actually feeling, what the issue actually is.

“Okay, so the usual,” he says, waiting for Derek to continue.

Derek just looks at him for ages before huffing a little and looking away.

“Erica asked to stay here,” he says, his voice going as gruff as it can despite not being that deep.

“Okaaaay,” Stiles says again, tilting his head to see Derek better. “Not following, dude. What’s the issue?”

Derek presses his lips together in a motion that definitely isn’t a pout. His hands flex on Stiles’s thighs.

“I told the pack they couldn’t stay here until you got settled in,” he says, quietly, like he’s embarrassed.

Stiles feels something funny happen in his chest or his stomach or maybe his dick, he’s not sure, but he does his best not to show it. He doesn’t want to embarrass Derek more or make him think he’s done something wrong. Derek’s weird, still, sometimes, about nice gestures, about stuff that makes him feel vulnerable or exposed, and Stiles has learned the hard way when he can or can’t tease.

“Hey,” Stiles says, trying not to show that he’s speaking carefully. “I knew what I was signing up for when I agreed to move in with you. The pack staying here when they need a place to go is a feature, not a bug.”

Derek makes a face at the analogy, like Stiles had hoped, and then he turns to look at Stiles properly. He doesn’t say anything, but Stiles knows that what he isn’t asking is,  _ Really? Are you sure? _

“Unless it’s Jackson,” Stiles continues like there hadn’t been a pause. “Besides, I think I’m basically settled in, don’t you? Unless there’s something you’re still waiting to spring on me, like... I don’t know, I honestly can’t even think of something that I wouldn’t already know that you do.”

As Stiles says it, he feels the truth of it; Derek already knows all of Stiles’s shit, too. They both knew what they were signing up for. He feels it settle in him, physically, and he thinks Derek feels it too, because he brings his arms up around Stiles’s back.

“You’re sure?” Derek asks, and this time he actually asks it because he’s confident in the answer.

Stiles isn’t clear on if Derek is asking about Erica staying over or Stiles staying there forever, but either way his answer is the same.

 

 

 


End file.
